Based on the 109,438 companies listed in Crunchbase as of today, the data set was sorted to find only enterprise software startups. There are 2,313 enterprise software startups listed, 61.6% or 1,425 operating as of today. 30.3% or 700 have been acquired, and just 90 or 3.9% have exited via Initial Public Offering (IPO). 98 or 4.2% have closed. Only operating enterprise startups are in this analysis.

Next, all operating startups who have had a funding round were included. Crunchbase tracks up to twelve different funding rounds. 1,239 of the 2,313 startups have had up to 3 funding rounds. Enterprise software startups were then ranked by total funding received. This produced a list of the top 100 best-funded startups that serves as the basis of the analysis. The final step was the additional of Glassdoor data by company as of today, August 8, 2016.

Each startups’ Glassdoor score for the % of employees who would recommend this company to a friend and % of employees who approve of the CEO as of today were added to the spreadsheet. Only those startups with 15 or more reviews from active employees were included in the analysis. Based on the thorough statistical analysis done for The Best Software Companies To Work For In 2015, having 15 active employee reviews is a reliable predictor that the majority of a company’s reviews are real. That analysis showed that company’s attempts to game Glassdoor don’t scale to or beyond 15 active reviews, which is why this figure is used to separate out startups.